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With the Complimeats of 
GEORGE FAMES BARSTOW 



Shall Democracy Endure 



By 

GEORGE EAMES BARSTOW 

Barstow, Texas 

U. S, A. 



"Where Washington hatli left 

"His awful memory 

"A htrht for after times!" 

— Southey. 

''Babylon, 
Learned and wise, hath perished utterly, 
Nor leaves her speech one word to aid the sig-h 
That would lament her. ' ' 

— Wordsworth, 



333 



By tranalctr 
!Ebe mate House. 



Shall Democracy Endure 



By 

GEORGE EAMES BARSTOW 

Member The National Institute of Social Sciences 
New York 

Fellow The Royal Society of Arts 
London 



The fundamental issue of the great world war has been and is 
Autocracy anent Democracy. That there has been for so long 
years past great strife in international commerce is well under- 
stood by ail careful observers and students of international af- 
fairs, many of whom attribute the present awful world chaps 
and upheaval to its clashing. • -, , 

While all the great powers have been unquestionably aggres- 
sive in their forgein commerce, the underlying motive has been 
with the exception of Germany, the furtherance of commercial 
profit and its concomitant advantages accruing to the people 
of these nations in broad economic and social uplift. They had 
obtained their "Place in the Sun" and were content! Germany 
had also acquired her place within the same sphere; but, was 
avaraciously discontent Germany was not only egregiously 
different from the other great powers in this respect; but coup- 



led therewith was in every and most insidious ways fastening her 
political tentacles upon every part of the world, her Emperor 
and autocartic attendants seeking nothing short of a German 
Empire of the world. The Kaiser's c^v as to the "Freedom of 
the Seas" has been but a subterfuge to blind the minds of the 
unknowing! The fact remains, that Germany has thru all these 
years enjoyed the utmost "Freedom of the Seas. Her ships 
could enter and have found free ports in every corner of the 
world. Her commerce and her great colonies of citizens den- 
ized on the soil of all the nations have lived and prospered ev- 
erywhere und3r the most favored clause of nations. Her sin- 
cerity of couduct has not been questioned, or under espionage; 
notwithstanding during all this time she has had a great army 
of spies in ail quarters of the earth. At the same time Ger- 
many has not been reciprocal in conduct toward the commerce 
of the other powers within her colonies! If we are to judge of 
the world's broadest political freedom and evolution of nation- 
ality by contrast, the nations would and do cry out for the 
'jFreedom of the Seas" as now obtains and which finds its sol- 
ution and permanence in the great and living and essential 
principal that naval power must be exercised as a bond pro- 
motive of pe ice and not conquest. For the past hundred 
years the greatest naval power in the world has been g )verned 
by this principle and its virtue is ingrained in its statecraft. 
The further we investigate and the more critical we may be in 
•mi-^ analysis of the underlying cause of the world war, the more 
'convinced we shall become that the same is not found in world 
commerce. That was with Germany simplv a means to an end! 
To be sure, if Germany enjoyed the "Freedom of of Seas" 
which met the view point of her autocratic rulers, she would 
be content, for her influence would only cease when she was 
all controlling. She would have excercised that power for con- 
quest and not as a bond of peace. Her merchants and man- 
ufacturers would enjoy boundless profit^ for themselves; and 
the increment of their fortune provide more largess for des- 
potic sway. 



Germany represents a nation wherein seventy thousand 
people— autocrats— absolutely control seventy millions of people 
— their servants! The Emporer assumes to rule by Divine 
appointment and his word is final in all state affairs. He is a 
fetich among his people! He controls almost the entire press 
of the nation and thereby creates such public opinion as may 
suit his caprice. The great universities and schools lie under 
his power by and thru which a propaganda has been taught by 
his adroit and able lieutenants, than which none could scarcely 
have been more monstrous, and looking toward the emascula- 
tion of other peoples and nations only so that his avarice and 
world ambitions might be satisfied. He would have all the 
world possessed of German Kultur, even though he must attain 

that end by force. The consummation and epitome of egoism! 
"For having sreed of life 
"Forget to live. " 

Can we marvel that world thought and ethical purpose was 
anent Germany? That the world conviction was and is that 
the German Government is striking at the very vitals of 
democracy? That the question of the liberties of the peoples 
and nations was hangmg in the balance? There is no doubt 
that all the British colonies and dependencies were before the 
war as they all are more than ever now, sincerely devoted to 
the motherland! But, is that devotion the only cause of their 
marvelous sacrifice in blood and treasure in the war? We find 
the full solution .in the fact that they foresaw that a gigantic 
blow was being struck at the very fundamental principles of 
democratic government as practiced under British sway? The 
British Colonies from Australia to India and from India to 
Africa and from Africa to Canada and thence to the islands of 
the seas foresaw, that as Byron tells us in Childe Harold, 

"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; 
"W^hen falls the Colisenm, Rome shall fall; 
"And when Rome falls, -^ the World." 

Listen to the words of loyalty as uttered by Sir Satyendra 
Sinha, president of the India National Congres, at Bombay in 



December 1915: 

"The question which, above all others, is engrossing our 
minds at the present moment is the War, and the supreme feel- 
ing which arises in our minds is one of deep admiration for the 
selfimposed burden which England's bearing in the struggle 
for liberty and freedom, and a feeling of profound pride that 
India has not fallen behind other portions of the British Empire 
but has stood shoulder to shoulder with them by the side of the 
Imperial Mother in the hour of her sorest trial. In the great 
galaxv of heroes, in the imperishable Roll of Honour, there are 
now. and there will never cease to be, beloved Indian names 
testifying to the fact that our people would rather die unsullied 
than outlive the disgrace of surrender to a bastard civilization. 

The War has given India an opportunity, as nothing 

else could have done, of demonstrating the courage, bravery 
and tenacity of her troops, even when pitted against the best 
organized armies of the world, and also the capacity of her sons 
of all classes, creeeds and nationalities to rise as one people un- 
der the stimulus of an overpowering emotion. That the wave 
of loyalty which has swept over India has touched the hearts of 
all classes have been ungrudgingly admitted even by unfriendly 

critics India has risen to the occasion, and her 

princes and peoples have vied with each other in rallying round 
the imperial standard at a time when the enimes of the Empire 
counted on disaffection and internal troubles. The spectacle 
affords a striking proof as much of the wisdom of these states- 
men who have in recent years guided the destiny of the British 
Empire in India as of the fitness of the Indian people to grasp 
the dignity and the responsibilities of citizenship of a world- 
wide Empire" 

New Zealand's and Australia's people were fully alive to 
to the situation as discovered by the words of Hon. Thomas 
McKenzie, Prime Minister of New Zealand: 

* I doubt if any event chronicled in history has so fired the 
imagination and kindled the anger of a people, and indeed, of 
the world, as Germany, s infamous treatment of Belgium. But 



this 1 do know, it fired the heart of New Zealand, and when it 
was decided to send an Expeditionary Force to the Front to aid 
Great Britian and her AUies, there was an almost turbulent desire 
on the part our youth and manhood to enlist. Long accustomed 
though they were to the arts of production and quite unaccust- 
omed to those of destruction, they seemed to realize instinctive- 
ly that something more than the safety, security and restora- 
tion of Belginm was at stake-" 

Hear again the recent testimony of the Sultan of Egypt as 
to British rule: 

**I have great hopes for Egypt. Without hope no man's 
life would be worth living. So I am ever hopeful and I believe 
that under the protection of England, the greatest of liberal 
powers, the future of Egyp' is assured. Had it not been for 
my faith in the British Government and my belief that there 
would be a gradual increase, in the rights granted us in the 
matter of self-rnle I should have never undertaken the task. 
From a personal standpoint I had nothing to gain." 

The fundamental significance of this great, and horriole 
world war is found in a dynamic battle of ideas. The German 
people, at large, have not yet found themselves. But, the Ger- 
man autocratic rulers intend that the world shall be ruled by 
their Kultur, In peace if may be; if not, then by force. 
Hence **her enemies," which have been self-created, arise 
from all parts of the world in all their manhood to arrest and 
overthrow her craven purposes and to reestablish a political 
and ethical norm that will usher in the living ideals of demo- 
cracy. Herein lies the cause of countless fields being watered 
by the blood of millions of men thru sacrifice; of great num- 
bers of towns and cities with all their temples and monuments 
of art and learnirg laid waste; of multitudes of innocent women 
and children tortured and outraged. 

Is the object worth the cost? Is the evolution of world 
democracy to be stopped? Is the egotistical and insatiable 
appetite for power of a few men to be satisfied? A mighty 
chorus of voices from all the peoples, nations and tribes of the 



world arise and reply in the negative. 

And what of the aftermath? "Watchmen tell us of the 
night?" Already we have seen the first glimmers of da^vn. 
The prophets and seers of our time inform us that there will 
be a new day and that the sunlight of democracy will shine 
with greater resplendency than ever before. Why? Because 
founded upon justice and not upon error. Error is defined as 
transgression; so that as in the case of our inquiry there has 
been transgression upon the human rights and liberties of 
some nations and the world cries out in protest. From time to 
time in all the past errors have invaded the governments of 
both church and state, and they have been overthrown. Such 
will undoubtedly be the result in the present world conflict, 
and democracy will issue in triumph! 

As the French Premier Briand recently said, "when peace 
has been declared, we shall have won a victory over ourselves 
as we shall have won it over tr.e Germans. No more divisions 
or local tyrannies, no more hatred of church steeples. There 
will be only one France." 

And, there will be but one Germany! But, a Germany 
ruled by its people on broad lines ot democracy and not having 
their liberties smothered by autocratic rule. 

The hope of the world lies in Democracy— Liberty under 
Law and its marvelous army of adherents have reason to be- 
lieve that out of 11 of the darkness and horrors of the present 
there will issue Triumphant Democracy. 



;; .Barstow, Texas. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



021 547 708 3 



